On the record
The writer does not cautiously follow and feel after the successive links, but forges and chooses and arrays them after a pattern of his own, which was fixed independently of them.
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John Morley
Source
gutenberg.orgJohn Morley: “The writer does not cautiously follow and feel after the successive links, but forges and chooses and arrays them after…”
Editor's note · Context
This statement emphasizes the importance of a thoughtful approach to historical writing rather than a mere assembly of facts.
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More from John Morley
We ought to be able to separate in thought the question of the grounds and evidence for a given dogma being true, from the distinct and purely historic question of the social and intellectual conditions which made men accept it for true.
We do not know how to leave India, and therefore let us see if we know how to govern it.
The omnipotent though not omniscient divinity called public opinion intervened.
But they were barren of any institutions by which the country could be governed and kept in prosperity for the future.”(166) This is a statement of the case that biographer and historian alike should ponder.
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